Most digital cameras today are similar in size to and behave like conventional point-and-shoot cameras. However, most digital cameras store digital images in an internal flash memory or on external memory cards and are equipped with a liquid-crystal display (LCD) screen on the back of the camera. Through the use of the LCD, most digital cameras operate in two modes, live and play. In live mode, the LCD is used as a viewfinder in which the user may view an object or scene before taking a picture. In play mode, the LCD is used as a playback screen for allowing the user to review previously captured images either individually or in arrays of four, nine, or sixteen images.
When a user wishes to capture an image in live mode, the user sends a capture command, usually by pressing a capture or shutter button. When the image is captured, the image is frozen on the LCD for a relatively long time while the image is processed and stored in memory. Typically, the image is partially obscured by a "wait" message during processing. Once the camera has finished processing and storing the image, the camera reverts back to the live mode for capturing further images. If the user desires to view the image just captured, the user must change to play mode.
Although a user can capture images in live mode, a user cannot obtain an unobstructed view an image that has just been captured without changing from live mode to play mode. The user also lacks control over the image frozen on the LCD during processing. Similarly, there is no control over the mode which the camera returns to after processing. Instead, the camera automatically returns to a live view, forcing the user to switch to play mode to view or perform operations on the last image captured.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved method and system for accessing the last image captured by a digital camera. The present invention addresses such a need.